Understanding Win7/HP Explorer search options

[ChrisGreaves]

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To say "I don't understand the new search options" is an understatement.
I've been struggling for 7 months now, and am ready to ask for help.

I miss the old XP Advanced Search Companion where I could see what my options were, and could locate all files that contained a tilde character (~) within their name.

I just can't seem to teach this new dog an old trick.

In the screenshot above I have specified (I thought) any file whose name starts with a tilde, but Explorer seems to return all files.
I have previously essayed with a single character (~), but then Explorer seems to return all files and sub-folders of the specified folder.

I note too that my options are severely limited.

Below, just for Old Times Sake, I've pasted an image of that-which-I-miss.

untitled.PNG

[HansV]

I really like Windows 7, and that includes searching for specific files and programs from the search box in the Start menu. That's simple, fast and efficient.
But its so-called advanced search fails spectacularly. It is very user-unfriendly, and frequently returns either too many or too few results.

[JoeP]

You need to use the Advanced Query Syntax. Also see Windows Advanced Query Syntaxand Using advanced query syntax for some examples.

AQS is powerful but NOT user friendly.

Joe

[ChrisGreaves]

... searching for specific files and programs from the search box in the Start menu.

Thanks Hans, I'll try this as an alternative.
(I just gave it a first whirl looking for ~*.* with spectacular non-results. It would not appear to be useful for file cleanup)

... advanced search fails spectacularly. It is very user-unfriendly, and frequently returns either too many or too few results.

Thanks too for this. It confirms what I think.
Of course, as with all new technology I start off by assuming I've mis-understood something. ...

[StuartR]

In Windows 7 you can use the method that I have always used.

Go to a command prompt and type
dir /s/p c:\~*.*

You can even use > to redirect the output to a temp file for further processing.

[ChrisGreaves]

You need to use the Advanced Query Syntax. Also see ... AQS is powerful but NOT user friendly. Joe

Thanks Joe.

Tada!

Putting "~*.*" in double-quotes did the trick!
Now to study the syntax in detail ...

(How puzzling that MS didn't provide a better user-interface for so powerful a tool. ...)

[ChrisGreaves]

Go to a command prompt and type .... use > to redirect the output to a temp file for further processing.

Thanks Stuart, and yes, I'm a great fan of the redirected DIR command:
DIR *.doc > EraseMe.doc
Followed by a keyboard macro in MSWord to format the list.

In the specific case from yesterday(?) I was looking for all the tilde files so I could delete them, and Explorer seemed a better bet.
I have used ToniArts's EasyCleaner 2.0 in the past, and it still works under Win7, so if I wasn't using Explorer it's make sense to use a pre-defined utility.

My puzzlement has extended to more than tilde files, though. Over the months I've been trying to locate files I *know* I've saved, with no success.

I see that at least one of JoeP's references includes comments that this AQS will solve more of my problems.

[StuartR]

This thread has been of great help to me. I had always thought that the syntax for searching for files by name was
Name:whatever
but I now see that it should be
Filename:whatever

Unfortunately for me, Name: is a valid syntax for searching for videos by name, not by filename, so it appeared to be working. That explains why my searches often didn't find what I was expecting.

[Sundog]

...any file whose name starts with a tilde

Have you tried Everything? http://www.voidtools.com/. Free, donations appreciated. On my system at work, it found a bunch of filenames that either started with a ~ or had a ~ in the filename.

SearchEverything.PNG

[DaveA]

Just installed "Everything" and it appears to be great.

But does it work on Network drives?

[Sundog]

Don't know, I only use it locally; I doubt it would work on network drives since it indexes every single folder and file at each startup.

[ChrisGreaves]

To say "I don't understand the new search options" is an understatement.

Nonetheless, spurred into action by my peers and superiors I have begun exploring the syntax and semantics of AQS by typing up a little exercise page for each task as I think of it/solve it using AQS.

The results which can be viewed here are a Work In Progress, and will change by leaps and bounds, as I am inspired.

The pages/articles are NOT laid out as a training course. Right now they just a collection of tasks, recorded on the web. At a later stage I will use this material for a 1-hour training course and/or tweet it out as tips, like my WinTips series.